Why ideas – not labor or capital – will decide countries’ economic success in the future

New World Order

Labor, Capital, and Ideas in the Power Law Economy

By Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence

Recent advances in technology have created an increasingly unified global marketplace for labor and capital. The ability of both to flow to their highest-value uses, regardless of their location, is equalizing their prices across the globe. In recent years, this broad factor-price equalization has benefited nations with abundant low-cost labor and those with access to cheap capital. Some have argued that the current era of rapid technological progress serves labor, and some have argued that it serves capital. What both camps have slighted is the fact that technology is not only integrating existing sources of labor and capital but also creating new ones.

Machines are substituting for more types of human labor than ever before. As they replicate themselves, they are also creating more capital. This means that the real winners of the future will not be the providers of cheap labor or the owners of ordinary capital, both of whom will be increasingly squeezed by automation. Fortune will instead favor a third group: those who can innovate and create new products, services, and business models.

The distribution of income for this creative class typically takes the form of a power law, with a small number of winners capturing most of the rewards and a long tail consisting of the rest of the participants. So in the future, ideas will be the real scarce inputs in the world — scarcer than both labor and capital — and the few who provide good ideas will reap huge rewards. Assuring an acceptable standard of living for the rest and building inclusive economies and societies will become increasingly important challenges in the years to come.

LABOR PAINS

Turn over your iPhone and you can read an eight-word business plan that has served Apple well: “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” With a market capitalization of over $500 billion, Apple has become the most valuable company in the world. Variants of this strategy have worked not only for Apple and other large global enterprises but also for medium-sized firms and even “micro-multinationals.” More and more companies have been riding the two great forces of our era — technology and globalization — to profits.

Read more » Foreign Affairs
Learn more » http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141531/erik-brynjolfsson-andrew-mcafee-and-michael-spence/new-world-order

 

Eight Beheadings on Justice Square

By Jalal Alamgir, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston

Excerpt;

It’s Friday, the holy day of the week. The Kingdom’s law enforcers gather up eight Bangladeshi migrant workers from their prison cells and bring them to Justice Square in the capital, Riyadh.

Blindfolded, they are led to the center of the square, and made to kneel down. A small crowd forms in anticipation. At 9 am, a robed man walks up and slowly raises a sword, four feet long and shining. Ambulances wait, stretchers ready.

The sword sweeps down.

The sleek expanse of Justice Square is patterned with beautiful granite. There is no stage, no unnecessary equipment, no fanfare. Underneath runs an efficient drainage system, with a receptacle the size of a pizza box at the center.

Regardless, the head often rolls in unexpected directions. It’s collected and laid alongside the body before being taken away on stretchers. Some of the blood spilled on the granite drains quickly, and the rest is hosed down. Those spraying the water are themselves migrant workers.

This is justice, square and fair in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the most backward regimes in the world. Here, hands are chopped, bodies are decapitated. Torture is common in extracting confessions. The accused have little protection.

And racism is stark: Arabs get away with a lot more than dark-skinned migrant laborers do. ….

….. The Kingdom, buttressed by its special relationships, does not waste any opportunity to show who the boss is. A public execution is just such an opportunity. The beheading of the eight was a shameful shock-and-awe tactic, a warning to the millions of other workers to remain submissive, however back-breaking their life may be. The message is clear: obey, and keep your head.

To read complete article » The Huffington Post

Gadhafi appears on verge of collapse as fighters reach Tripoli

By the CNN Wire Staff

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — The 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi appeared on the verge of collapse early Monday, with rebel supporters packing the same Tripoli square where regime loyalists had congregated for months.

These celebrations were in response to rebel inroads into the capital and news that Two of Moammar Gadhafi’s sons — Saif al-Islam and Saadi — have been arrested by opposition forces. Jumma Ibrahim, a rebel spokesman based in Libya’s western mountain region, said both were captured in Tripoli.

There was no immediate reaction from Libyan government officials to these claims. CNN could not confirm the arrests, and there was no documentation provided by the rebels to verify the report.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also said Saif Gadhafi had been arrested and would be sought by court “for his participation in crimes against humanity (affecting) the Libyan people.” …

Read more → CNN

Norway Explosion, Deadly Attack On Oslo, blast damaged Prime Minister office, Shooting At Utoya Island, Citizens Of Norway are In Shock on 9/11 of Norway

Norway reeling after 2 deadly attacks

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) — Norway came under deadly attack Friday with a massive bombing in the heart of its power center and a shooting at the ruling party’s youth camp on an island outside the capital. ….

Read more → CNN

Triple explosions shake India’s financial hub Mumbai

Mumbai: Explosions shake India’s financial hub

The BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan says the explosions happened in the middle of rush hour. Three near-simultaneous explosions have shaken India’s commercial capital Mumbai (Bombay), police say. Twenty-one people were killed and 113 injured, said Maharashtra state’s Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan. He called the explosions, during Mumbai’s busy evening rush-hour, “a co-ordinated attack by terrorists”. One explosion was reported in the Zaveri Bazaar, another in the Opera House business district and a third in Dadar district in the city centre. …

Read more → BBC

Yemen leader Saleh agrees to step down

Yemen leader Saleh agrees to step down under Gulf plan

President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has agreed to step down under a 30-day transition plan aimed at ending violent unrest over his 32-year rule.

Officials in the capital Sanaa confirmed the government had accepted the plan drawn up by Gulf Arab states.

Mr Saleh will hand power to his vice-president one month after an agreement is signed with the opposition, in return for immunity from prosecution.

At least 120 people have died during two months of protests.

The US has welcomed the announcement; a statement from the White House urged all parties to “swiftly” implement a peaceful transfer of power ….

Read more : BBC

Anti-government protests held across Syria

Syria: Clashes at mass Damascus protest

Syrian security forces have used tear gas and batons to disperse tens of thousands of protesters in the capital, Damascus, witnesses said.

The protesters called for reforms, while some demanded the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

The protests, in Damascus and other cities, are believed to be the largest in a month of unrest in which about 200 people have been reported killed. …

Read more : BBC

We express sympathy & solidarity with Japanese Nation

The most powerful 8.9-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s northeastern coast around 0546 GMT on Friday. It caused a four-meter tsunami in the port city of Kamishi and its tremors shook buildings in the capital Tokyo, over 300 kilometers away and the disaster’s massive impact was only beginning to be revealed…” We share grief & sorrow of our Japanese brethren.

– You Tube

Sindhi opera

Sindhi opera Ranni Kot Ja Dharrail enthrals audience

By Sohail Sangi

HYDERABAD: Ranni Kot Ja Dharrail (Dacoits of Ranni Kot), an opera concert at the Mumtaz Mirza Auditorium of Sindh Museum proved to be an event of the season in the cultural capital of Sindh, Hyderabad, as a team of artistes filled the air and many believed that Shaikh Ayaz, the great Sindhi poet and versatile literary figure, was reborn.

This was part of events of festival organised to mark the 88th birth anniversary of Shaikh Ayaz.

A Sindhi private channel and the Sindh culture department organised the concert on Tuesday night. A number of people from various walks of life including writers, intellectuals, activists, women, art lovers and students attended the event. …

Read more : DAWN

Salute to this Martyr of Humanity Murdered by the Dark forces of Theocracy

– Pakistan minister Bhatti predicts own assassination

BBC News has received a video of the murdered Pakistani minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, in which he talks about his own assassination.

Mr Bhatti, a Christian, who was shot dead in the capital, Islamabad, had been calling for the abolishment of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.

To watch the video : BBC

Yeh Ghazi yeh terey purasraar bandey!?!? another hit?

– Pakistan Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti shot dead

Pakistani Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti has been shot dead by gunmen who ambushed his car in broad daylight in the capital, Islamabad.

He was travelling to work through a residential district when his vehicle was sprayed with bullets, police said.

Mr Bhatti, the cabinet’s only Christian minister, had received death threats for urging reform to blasphemy laws.

In January, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had also opposed the law, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards.

The blasphemy law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Critics say it has been used to persecute minority faiths. …

Read more : BBC

Fighting Nears Tripoli, Where Qaddafi Keeps Grip on Power

By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

TOBRUK, Libya — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya kept his grip on the capital, Tripoli, on Wednesday, but large areas of the east remained out of his control as the uprising against his 40-year rule spread to more cities.

Libyans fleeing across the country’s western border into Tunisia reported fighting over the past two nights between rebel and pro-government forces in the town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman archeological site 50 miles west of Tripoli. Thousands of Libyan forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi have deployed there, according to Reuters.

“The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against Qaddafi,” said a doctor from Sabratha who had just left the country, but who declined to give his name because he wanted to return. …

Read more : The New York  Times

Pro-democracy rally begins in Algeria, defying ban

Pro-democracy rally begins in Algeria, defying ban

Thousands defied a government ban to hold a pro-democracy rally in Algiers

Thousands of people are holding a pro-democracy rally in Algeria’s capital Algiers, defying a government ban. Scuffles broke out between the protesters and riot police and a number of people were reportedly arrested.

Algeria – like Egypt, Tunisia and other countries in the region – has recently witnessed demonstrations for greater freedoms and better living standards.

Public demonstrations are banned in Algeria because of a state of emergency still in place since 1992.

Heavy police presence

The protesters gathered at Algiers’ 1 May Square on Saturday morning.

They chanted “Bouteflika out!” – in reference to the country’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. …

Read more : BBC

Karachi under siege – Eric Ellis

IT IS a measure of the limited appeal of Karachi, Pakistan’s bumptious commercial capital, that eager taxi drivers try to lure their few tourist passengers to a laundry.

Admittedly, Karachi’s ”dhobi ghats” are perversely impressive in a modern world of Whirlpools; kilometres of downtown riverbank are strewn with shalwar kameez, carpets, undies and so on being pounded, washed and bleached under burning sun by scores of minions, a scene an Asian Hogarth might have conceived.

But a more eloquent statement of how Pakistan struggles to appeal, and why that is a worry for us all in an age of Islamist terror and suicide bombers, is that in a city bursting with a population equal to Australia, this supposed hub of south-Asian banking and business has just two international-standard business hotels. Both are shabby embarrassments to their global brands and neither have been full for years. By contrast, even Manila – capital of south-east Asia’s most infamous economic basket case – boasts the usual 30-odd Hyatts, Shangri-Las and Hiltons.

Is it any wonder? The Pakistani family that owns the Karachi Marriott has seen several of its other properties in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar devastated by suicide bombings in recent years, killing scores. Their Karachi flagship is sited next door to the US consulate here, which might provide comfort to travellers.

Or might not. Breakfast titter among the Marriott’s few foreign businessmen – usually bluff resource types sussing out Pakistan’s underdone energy sector – has a disquieting morbidity about it, diners speculating when, rather than if, this hotel will be bombed too….

Read more >> SMH

Karachi is the broken heart of Sindh

Karachi the capital of Sindh : The wounds and ruptures of Sindhis after partition of sub-continent remain unknown to most of the world. My Vanishing Karachi by Amar Jaleel.

Source – YouTube

A letter to Indus Asia Online Journal

I strongly condemns a “media group” who is often using anti-Sindh term as “Karachi aur Sindh” in their news. It is an abasement and a volley on Sindh’s identity. Karachi is a part of Sindh not apart from Sindh.

Ubedullah Soomro

June 10, 2010